The remains came to rest in a tangle of logs, swept there by the mud-brown river surging toward flood levels in the wake of spring rains. On June 7, 2017, the smell of decay from the Maumee drew a worker from a nearby water filtration plant. By the late afternoon responders had unmoored the body, but after snaking through the river’s bends for days its identity initially proved indeterminable.
First, word came from the Fort Wayne, Ind., media: another corpse found in the water, the second in recent weeks. Then whispers. Then texts and phone calls: You know that person they’re talking about?